Throwback Thursday: 1984

10. Shannon - Let the Music Play
9. Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want to Have Fun

I'm just going to go with my gut on this one. I recently played the Michael Jackson song. The other ones I was considering were Van Halen, Nena, and Culture Club. But I think this one leaves them all in the dust. Plus it ends with a cool Marx Brothers ref.

8. Yes - Owner of a Lonely Heart
7. Michael Jackson - Thriller
6. Genesis - That's All
5. The Romantics - Talking in Your Sleep
4. Nena - 99 Luftballoons
3. Kool & the Gang - Joanna
2. Van Halen - Jump
1. Culture Club - Karma Chameleon

One Year, 100 Albums: #38 Lagwagon "Let's Talk About Feelings"

Lagwagon Let's Talk About Feelings, 1998

Let's start things off with the video, since it's the first track on the album and one of the first times they played it.

My friend Riley told me I would love this album. And I do now, but it took me a while to really understand that I should love it. This happens often.

So, on the surface, this is a pretty straightforward late-90's Fat Wreck pop-punk album. But then "Owen Meaney" ends and you play it again. And again. And again. And you come to realize that this album is all about connections, or rather a lack thereof. Every song examines some sort of disconnect or alienation. The fast pace is just a cover.

That's not to say I don't love the instrumentation. I do. It's so fun to air drum with. And the changes are surprising and refreshing at first, but then they become wonderful landmarks. Like in the middle of "After You My Friend" (from that video up there) where the music slows down and turns into elevator music for a couple of bars just to mess with you.

Even though I didn't feature it here, "Owen Meaney" is the crown jewel of this album. It starts off with an extended instrumental and then just when you think that it's just some weird instrumental, the lyrics come in, on fire. If you've read A Prayer For Owen Meaney, it hits even harder (It's a great book and you should definitely check it out) but it hits pretty hard as it is.

This is an album that I will love as much at 50 as I did at 20. But for vastly different reasons.


Lagwagon - Leave the Light On
Lagwagon - Messengers

You can buy Let's Talk About Feelings at Amazon, Amazon MP3, and iTunes
(The iTunes version is the re-release with 14 extra tracks of b-sides and stuff for the same price as the regular album on Amazon. Just sayin'.)

Top Ten Tuesday: Beyonce featuring Jay Z "Drunk in Love"

My two options for the week are both VERY sexual, which is nothing new to the Top Ten. So I decided to go with the video that I feel SLIGHTLY less awkward about posting. If it wasn't for 2 Chainz's verse, I might have gone the other way (and unless it falls off the Top Ten, or something else enters, you'll get that treat next week!) but I think there's something sweet and cool about Beyonce and Jay Z recording this song. It's like the opposite of a Fleetwood Mac song.

The video is pretty straightforward and actually has kind of a classic feel to it. You could imagine Janet Jackson making a similar video in like 1993.

New Countdown: Not Letting a Measly Snowstorm Keep ME From Procrastinating!

Pearl Jam

Well, I had a bunch of time to do this, with the snow storm and everything, but, of course, decided to wait until the last possible moment to actually record most of it. I know some things go better if you're under pressure, but I mean, come on! :)

I can't do that again next week because I'm going to a concert on Saturday night! If you're interested in knowing more, you literally have to wait through the whole episode to find out details. So just forget I mentioned anything and then when I bring it up, it'll be like "Oh yeah! I *was* interested in that!"


Countdown #185

***Featuring***
Arctic Monkeys
Bastille
Cage the Elephant
Dar Williams
Foster the People
Gnarls Barkley
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
The Neighbourhood
Pearl Jam
Vampire Weekend
Young the Giant

One Year, 100 Albums: #39 Counting Crows "August and Everything After"

Counting Crows August and Everything After, 1993

If I'm going to do this post right, then I need to start of with about 15 seconds of silence.

...............

And we're into it. I got this album in a used record store in Brookline that was in this weird like mini, indoor, outlet mall. I'm not really sure how to describe it. You'd go in through some doors like you were going into any other store, but instead there were like 7 tiny stores. Maybe someone from Brookline knows what I'm talking about. The New England Comics was right next to it.

Anyways, I was familiar with the singles (Mr. Jones, Rain Kings) from the radio, kind of. I guess I knew Mr. Jones a little more and wanted to have a copy of the song for myself.

I listened to it a lot that trip to Boston and never really stopped. It's my rainy day album. It's one of those albums that rewards repeated listens because you learn all of Adam Duritz's pauses and phrasing and all of that. Of course all of that repeated listening will not do you much good at a CC concert, where he changes all of those pauses and phrasing and even the words to most of the songs. But I think he does it because he's feeling the emotion of the song and not limiting himself to something that he wrote more than 20 years ago. Which is a good lesson for all of us, I'd imagine.

There are so many great things about the songs on this one. In "Anna Begins", I love the stuttering drums and the bass and the way the chorus comes in like a ray of sunshine and the line "every time she's sneezes I believe it's love". In "Murder of One" I like the way it builds to that drum fill, and how he says the name of the band in the song. And I love everything about "Raining in Baltimore"

We're reaching the point in this countdown where I'm feeling like the order isn't right. Surely this is more than my 39TH favorite album. I don't know. It's such a good one. Wait until it looks like rain and then go get it and put it on repeat.

Here's the video for "Mr. Jones" because we shouldn't be ashamed of the 90's

Counting Crows - Anna Begins

Counting Crows - Raining in Baltimore

You can buy August and Everything After at Amazon, Amazon MP3, iTunes

Throwback Thursday: 1985

10. David Lee Roth - California Girls
9. Don Henley - The Boys of Summer
8. Glenn Frey - The Heat is On
7. REO Speedwagon - Can't Fight This Feeling
6. The Pointer Sisters - Neutron Dance
5. Daryl Hall and John Oates - Method of Modern Love
4. Billy Ocean - Lover Boy
3. Philip Bailey with Phil Collins - Easy Lover



Couple of things on this Top 10 from this week in 1985: The singers from REO Speedwagon and Foreigner are basically the same guy. There are two songs from the Beverly Hills Cop Soundtrack on this Top 10 (#'s 8 and 6). Finally, I picked this video because I'm not entirely familiar with the song, Phil Collins ruled the Top Tens of the 80's, and I liked the concept of the video as outlined by PC himself (making a video of making a video about making a video). Oh, also Hall and Oates are a couple of hams, aren't they?


2. Foreigner - I Want to Know What Love Is
1. Wham! - Careless Whisper

One Year, 100 Albums: #40 Kanye West "The College Dropout"

Kanye West The College Dropout, 2004

First of all, I certainly didn't plan to have this post come out two days after the 10th anniversary of the release of this album. It's a pure coincidence. But I'm really glad that this coincidence happened, because I like to see that people still value this album as much as I do.

In fact, I have not liked Kanye more in recent years than I did after reading this post from Pigeons and Planes

So. My history with Kanye West. I saw the video for "Jesus Walks" at some point and paused for a moment on it because the beat was SO different from the other popular songs in hip-hop at the time. Then I saw him perform in the movie Dave Chappelle's Block Party and I really enjoyed that. And finally, the guy that I worked with at Perdue (who I believe I mentioned in the Carbon Leaf post) played this and also Late Registration (the follow-up to this) a lot and so finally (Amazon tells me) I bought it for my birthday in 2006. I think I probably bought both albums, but I don't think I'll check because this isn't about both albums. It's about this album.

This album finds KWest as a new rapper, but one with a number of years of experience as a producer. So he's made friends (Mod Def, Jay-Z, Ludacris, etc.) and has lots of fun production tricks.

The thing that finally sold me on this album is the beginning. An old man asks Kanye to sing a song that the kids can enjoy and so he starts "We Don't Care" by saying yeah he knows JUST the song. And then a chorus of kids comes in singing (with him), "Drug dealing just to get by/Stack your money till it gets sky high" and I have always (and will always) found that hilarious and irreverent. And it stays that way for the whole album. There are surprising turns of phrase and surprising points of view that keep this album fresh and enjoyable even into its second decade.

Kanye West - We Don't Care
Kanye West featuring Jay-Z & J-Ivy - Never Let Me Down

You can buy The College Dropout at Amazon, Amazon MP3, and iTunes